Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop

ISBN-13: 9781441191366 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 256 str.

Sean Albiez

Opis

When they were creating and releasing their most influential albums in the mid to late 1970s, Kraftwerk were far from the musical mainstream - and yet it is impossible now to imagine the history of popular music without them. Today, Kraftwerk are considered to be an essential part of pop's DNA, alongside artists like the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, and Little Richard.Kraftwerk's immediate influence might have been on a generation of synth-based bands (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the Human League, Depeche Mode, Yello, et al), but their influence on the emerging dance culture in urban America has proved longer lasting and more decisive. This collection of original essays looks at Kraftwerk - their legacy and influence - from a variety of angles, and demonstrates persuasively and coherently that however you choose to define their art, it's impossible to underestimate the ways in which it predicted and shaped the future.

Recenzje

"No one but C-3PO makes love to Kraftwerk. No one liked them much to begin with - certainly not in Germany.Yet they eventually managed to attract sufficient critical mass to create a new star. And everyone else found themselves firmly in orbit.This book of original essays scrutinises their cultural influence from all angles. Here, Kraftwerk are cast as Cousins of Iggy Pop, Duchamp, Gilbert and George, Heirs to Hitler, Stockhausen, Gropius and The Beach Boys. Brothers of Beuys and Bambaataa, Kin to Kiefer, Godfathers of British Pop, Uncles of Rave, Midwives of Detroit Techno, Sperm Donors of Dance - as mysterious and potent as the monoliths in 2001, as daft as Punk, as indispensible to understanding modern culture as Musclebuilding, Warhol, or Strictly Ballroom.If this book were a film, it would move from macro to micro every scene, if it were a meal it would be prepared by Heston Blumenthal. It's a mutation waltz, a stumble rumba, a nimble mambo, a complex minuet - and proof that cultural critics can dance." - John Foxx, synthpop pioneer and multi-media artist

Spis treści

List of ContributorsPreface Introduction: The (Ger)man MachinesDavid PattieI. Music, Technology and Culture1. Autobahn and Heimatklänge: Soundtracking the FRGSean Albiez and Kyrre Tromm Lindvig2. Kraftwerk and the Image of the ModernDavid Cunningham3. Kraftwerk - The Decline of the Pop StarPertti Grönholm4. Authentic Replicants: Brothers between Decades between Kraftwerk(s)Simon Piasecki and Robert Wilsmore5. Kraftwerk: Technology and CompositionCarsten Brocker (Translated by Michael Patterson)6. Kraftwerk: Playing the MachinesDavid PattieII. Influences and Legacies7. Europe Non- Stop: West Germany, Britain and the Rise ofSynthpop 1975-81Sean Albiez8. Vorsprung durch Technik - Kraft werk and the British Fixationwith GermanyRichard Witts9. 'Dragged into the Dance' - The Role of Kraftwerk in theDevelopment of Electro- FunkJoseph Toltz10. Average White Band: Kraftwerk and the Politics of RaceMark Duffett11. Trans-Europa Express: Tracing the Trance MachineHillegonda RietveldDiscographyIndex

O autorze

Sean Albiez is an Independent Scholar and musician. He has published on electronic music, music technology, punk and post-punk. He is currently researching topics in electronic music history and has thirty years experience lecturing in popular music at UK universities and colleges. He is co-editor of Kraftwerk: Music Non Stop (Bloomsbury, 2011), Brian Eno: Oblique Music (Bloomsbury, 2016), and The Velvet Underground (Bloomsbury, 2022), and Contributing Editor (Music Technology) for the Bloomsbury Encyclopaedia of Popular Music of the World. He produces electronic music as ghost elektron and - with Martin James - as Nostalgia Deathstar. David Pattie is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham, UK. He researches and publishes in a number of areas; popular music performance and culture, contemporary British and Scottish theatre, and the work of Samuel Beckett. He is the author of Rock Music in Performance (Bloomsbury, 2007), and the co-editor of the books Kraftwerk: Music Non Stop (Bloomsbury, 2011) and Brian Eno: Oblique Music (Bloomsbury, 2016), and The Velvet Underground (Bloomsbury, 2022).